There was one comment I received via e-mail that contained the statement:
| We care far more about a powwow on the other side of Turtle Island
| (where the Indians are fighting the same battles we are with the US and
| Canadian prevailing cultures) than we do about what's happening in
| Suriname or Siberia.
as part of a complaint about my intent to cease carrying such materials
on NATIVE-L.
Please let me make clear that in no way do I intend to deprecate these
kinds of announcements. They are legitimate and important - but they
can also be very numerous during the spring and summer months. Due to
the fact that it takes time and effort on my part to process each article
that is posted on this list (I often have to reformat articles due to
problems associated with text prepared using word processors and modern
mail systems that do automatic text wrapping which is incompatible with
presentation on a mailing list), and because only a few people out of
our roughly fifteen hundred (1500) NATIVE-L subscribers are able to use
the information they contain, I am trying to encourage other methods to
be used to distribute this kind of information. The system that Shane
has created seems perfect for the task, and I want to do what I can to
help him make it work as well as possible and to publicize it widely.
As for the matter of articles on subjects outside North America being
posted to this list, it is now and has always been my intent to promote
NATIVE-L for posting information regarding indigenous peoples in *all*
parts of the world. I make no apology for this intent nor for the policy
that emerges from it. I understand that people tend to be most interested
in their "own" issues - but I believe that it is important for all of us to
understand how our issues relate to those of one another and that lasting
solutions to some kinds of problems are not really possible to achieve on
a strictly local or even national level. One of my most important goals
is to demonstrate the interconnections of peoples and their problems and
to do what is possible to encourage our thinking and feeling and working
together about what separates us and what brings us together.
However, there will be some who disagree with this perspective, such as
the person who sent the comment I quoted above, who wanted to leave this
list in protest. Therefore, I will remind you all that it is easy to do
so - to unsubscribe from NATIVE-L, send a message to "listserv@tamu.edu"
containing:
signoff native-l
If you want to unsubscribe from *all* of the NativeNet lists, use instead:
signoff *
(be sure to include a space before the asterisk ("*")).
Again, I would like to say that I am doing as well as I know how to manage
this list, which I do entirely on a voluntary basis, to serve a variety of
needs and to satisfy some of my own deeply-held personal goals. I am open
to hearing the views of subscribers on any subject, and I have been known
to change my mind as a result of feedback I have received. In this matter,
I hope the compromise I have offered is suitable and adequate for present
purposes. So, once again, I will accept pow wow announcements until I am
satisfied that Shane Caraveo's "Native Events Calendar" is working well
enough that it can become the definitive vehicle for announcing such events.
My best regards to all,
Gary
--
Gary S. Trujillo gst@gnosys.svle.ma.us
Somerville, Massachusetts {bu.edu,spdcc,cdp}!gnosys!gst